Tamara's Blog

Twitter Puts the Fun Back in Customer Service

Timmy: awesome. and can we please continue to talk about Timmy in the 3rd person? Timmy likes to boost Timmy’s ego by talking about Timmy that way

Jonathan: Jonathan would be happy to neglect the use of pronouns for the duration of this conversation.

This is an excerpt from the most hilarious customer service exchange I've ever read. Todd from SiteLead - posing as "Timmy" - wrote about his live chat experience with Jonathan at Zappos.com last week. If you missed it, you can read it here: Zappos Live Chat.

A bit of the backstory: My friend Char emailed me the link to this post and commented:

Char: I don’t know why but I follow Zappo’s CEO on twitter.

Me: This was great! I tweeted it. And of course you follow Zappo's CEO. Anybody who's anybody follows him. :)

Char: Hahaha. I must BE somebody then!

Indeed you are, Char. Indeed you are. Thanks for passing this along.

The reason I share this bit is the fun aftermath that resulted after I tweeted this link on Twitter. Twitter is helping make the customer experience real and "fun" again.

From me (@tamaradull):
Gotta luv Zappos! Read this awesome live chat with customer service. Jonathan rocks! (via @CharleneSeim) Zappos Live Chat
9:23 PM Jun 3rd

From Todd (@sitelead) who wrote the blog post:
@tamaradull my blog died from traffic but is back :) original zappos chat post: Zappos Live Chat
12:25 AM Jun 4th

From @Zappos_Service:
@tamaradull I'm definitely going to let Jonathan know that you complimented him! Thanks so much!
8:40 AM Jun 4th

In response to Todd:
Sorry about that. It was a great post! :)
11:14 AM Jun 4th

In response to @Zappos_Service:
This world definitely needs more Jonathan's in customer service. Keep up the great work you guys!
11:17 AM Jun 4th

@Zappos_Service responds back:
I will make sure to let him know! Thank you so much! :)
11:18 AM Jun 4th

@Zappos_Service responds again:
Hi Tamara...Jonathan was touched by your kind words. He does rock and so do you! Have a great weekend!
6:07 AM Jun 6th

My last response:
@Zappos_Service Thanks! I am now a Zappos.com customer-just ordered my fave Converse All Star Slips. 2 pairs even! LOVE the free shipping.
about 24 hours ago

One of my Twitter buddies - @SwitchingGranny - adds:
@tamaradull You are going to love Zappos.com I don't know a company w/ better customer service. And free shipping both ways!! Awesome
about 23 hours ago

Zappos.com and I are off to a wonderful start: Great customer service (as demonstrated well by Jonathan) and a new pair of my favorite shoes. Life is indeed good.

Some Twitter Cartoon Fun

Here's a few Twitter cartoons that my friend Dr. Jane passed my way. Enjoy!

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You Know You're Dutch When...

A dear Dutch friend sent this to me awhile back, and even though I'm not Dutch, it certainly captures my Dutch friends' idiosyncrasies charming approach to life. It's a great list whether you're Dutch or not. One thing I'll never get used to is the "mayonnaise on french fries" bit. That's just wrong. Happy reading!

You know you're Dutch when...

The temperature is so low in your house that 2 sweaters is a bare minimum if you want to be remotely warm.

During the winter it's warmer outside than it is inside.

You burst in laughter when someone bumps their head or stubs their toe.

You open the freezer and are excited to find a container of ice-cream, only to open it and discover it's full of homemade soup or stamppot.

When looking in the fridge, you never trust that the yogurt or margarine containers contain what the label says.

You were green before it was popular. Why recycle when you can just reuse!

You have a pair a wooden shoes in your house.

Your china cabinet is filled with Delft.

You like pickled herring.

You've eaten oliebollen at New Years.

You enjoy chocolate sprinkle (hagelslag) sandwiches.

You have cousins who wear size 14 shoes and are over 6'4".

You wash and reuse plastic cups and plastic cutlery.

You have soup and open-faced sandwiches for Sunday lunch.

The most frequent phrase uttered growing up was "Turn off the lights!"

You get a chocolate letter every year for Christmas.

All the tables in your house are covered in tablecloths.

You like krokets.

You know that Vla is better than regular old pudding.

You drink tea with breakfast, coffee at 10 am, tea at 3 pm, and coffee again at 8 pm (with cookies or biscuits of course!).

You have an afghan knitted by your Oma.

You collect coupons like they're going out of style.

Your Oma had a calendar with everyone's birthdays & anniversaries spelled out in capital letters (bonus points if it hung in the bathroom!).

You've been known to recycle aluminum foil. And ziploc bags.

You own a special utensil that is only used for cutting cheese.

You know that Gouda is the best cheese ever.

You have at least 5 relatives with the same name (and somehow you always know which one is being talked about).

You reuse teabags.

When you hear all the "new ways to save energy" you yawn and say "I've been doing that all my life!"

You eat your sandwiches open-faced. "What? You want another slice of bread? I'll make you another sandwich."

You rarely have both meat and cheese on the same sandwich.

You have never met half the relatives at your family reunion.

You drive a minivan to fit all the kids.

You have 100 roles of toilet paper in your house because they were on sale.

You put a little water into the jar of tomato sauce and shake it to make sure you got it all out.

You have trouble shopping for hats. There should be at least two sizes: 'one size fits all' and 'dutch.'

You wipe the last of the butter out of the container with your bun.

All your cookies taste like almonds.

You make the bed in your hotel room.

You have lace on your windows but not on your underwear.

You like dubbel zout drops, and have occasionally tricked a friend into trying one.

You've put mayonnaise on your french fries.

You enjoy 'pindasaus' on all your foods.

Your kitchen is filled with milk bags drying, waiting to be reused in the freezer.

You drink Heineken out of pride.

You have a front room but nobody sits in it (or it's only used for special occasions).

You have a spoon collection.

Your favourite mustard comes in jars that can be reused as drinking glasses.

You leave a window open year round to get fresh air.

You eat stroop waffles.

You love the colour orange.

You have a vegetable garden because there's no way you're paying that much for veggies at the grocery store.

Your fridge is always stocked with leftovers. Throw out food? Never!

You go to the "Dutch Store" because the smell brings back so many childhood memories.

You have pictures of windmills around your house.

Everything is Do-It-Yourself - it's cheaper than hiring someone.

You use "washandjes" (facecloths that you can put your hand into).

You have to explain what 'oom' and 'tante' means when you're discussing your relatives with non-Dutch people.

You own tea towels and oven mitts patterned with windmills and dancing women in clogs.

You call it "MELK" not "milk."

All your cousins have the same names as your brothers and sisters because everyone is named after Oma and Opa.

And finally, you know you're Dutch when...

You're laughing along with this list because you can relate to most it.

Have You Ever Heard a Raccoon Scream?

I hadn't. Until this morning. I was enjoying my Keurig mocha creation when I heard this loud commotion out back. Now granted, my "out back" is not your typical "out back." I live in a condo with a deck that overlooks a rather large protected wetlands area. See for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a result, I enjoy the sights and sounds of wildlife more than domestic pets around here. When a siren goes by, it's not the dogs who howl - it's the pack of coyotes that live out there. And there are literally hundreds of birds in the trees you see. I know because they wake me up every morning, rain or shine. But I digress...

The Loud Commotion

I feared the worst. I thought it was a coyote who had got a hold of a neighbor's cat. Hesitantly, I went out on the deck, wrestling with whether I really wanted to watch a cat fight to its last breath. I mean, what could I do? I looked over the rail and saw nothing. Whew!

Then I saw the real source of the commotion: it was coming from the trees - the one back behind the bird feeder in the picture above. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were 2 raccoons picking on this little runt of a raccoon.

The two bullies growled as they tried to push the little guy to its death. But he held on, screaming ever so loudly. Eventually, the bullies left him alone and climbed up the tree.

The little guy stayed put. He eventually walked to a place on the limb where I could see him. And we just stared at each other. In my mind, I was trying to tell him to Run, Raccoon, Run...but he didn't and...

The bullies came back. This time I grabbed my camera. That was the last fight. No one got hurt. Just shaken up quite a bit. What a rough morning.

 

Are You as Smart as a Junior Higher?

What level of education is required to read my blog? According to the Blog Readability Test, a junior higher should bode well with this blog. Do you agree with these results? I do. If it was any higher, I'd be missing the boat I set out to sail. [HT to Eric.]

Do You Tend to Over-Think Stuff?

Confessions of an IT Hitman, a business blog I follow, posed the following list of questions to show how some of us tend to over-think to get to the right answer. Ready for some light weekend thinking gymnastics? [HT to the IT Hitman.]

• What does a banana taste like?
• What do you call a question with no answer?
• If there was a crumb on the table and you cut it in half, would you have two crumbs or two halves of a crumb?
• What is a "self-help" group?
• What can you put in a barrel which makes it lighter?
• Why did Sally sell seashells on the seashore when you can just pick them up for free?
• Why are red buttons always the most important?
• How do you know water's wet?
• Could someone be addicted to counseling? If so, how would you treat them?
• Why do people duck when it rains?
• If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest drown too?
• Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
• Why are 1968 pennies worth more than 1967 pennies?
• What is the number eleven thousand eleven hundred and eleven divided by three?
• What word is always spelled incorrectly?

Does Your Name Set You Up to Be Bullied?

I read a great post on the Mental Floss blog the other day about this kewl Oxygen Media Web site called BabyNamer.com. You may be tempted to quit reading at this point because you're not in the market for the perfect baby name, but I encourage you to read on...

Drawbacks (a.k.a. How You Could Be Picked On If You Have This Name)

As with most baby naming sites, Babynamer.com offers up the standard background information for over 23,000 names. It also provides brief profiles for Namesakes (famous people with the same name). The real feature, however, is the Drawbacks. This is a list of all the "friendly" nicknames you could get called if you had the name.

Tamara's Drawbacks

I know I have many, but let's stay focused on what BabyNamer.com has to say:

• Tambo - I have been called this now and again
• Taminator - Me and Ahhnold
• Tampon - Ummm, don't even think about it
• Tomorrow - I can't tell you how many times I've heard this one!
• Tam Tam - Yea, another "favorite"

My Friends' Drawbacks

Here's a quick list of "drawbacks" for some of my friends I've written about on this blog:

• Eric - Crouton, Eric the aardvark, Earache, Hysteric
• Evan - Ebby, Evan Deven, Evian
• Henriet - none
• Jennifer - Jennifurball, Jen-nay, Jennibean
• Jill - Jelly Bean, Chill Pill, Jilly Vanilly
• Julia - JuJu, Jules, Julabean
• Scot - Scooter, Scotty Potty

Check It Out

Click here to go to BabyNamer.com. Feel free to share any of your favorite discoveries. Have fun!

Chelsea Clinton and the Marine

This week, the category I'm focusing on is "Things That Smell Political." There's a few kewl tools, videos and ideas to share. To kick things off, here's a fun joke that you may have read:

Chelsea Clinton was departing her plane at the airport, and came  upon a Marine. She proceeded to talk to him.

She asked him where he had been, to which he replied, "Baghdad." She praised him for what he had done for the country and asked, "Were you scared?"

He replied, "No, but I am scared about what I am facing as I return to the United States."

Chelsea asked, "What are you afraid of?"

He looked seriously at her, and said, "I am afraid of three things: Osama, Obama and Yomama.

[HT to Char and Incognito (modified version).]

Coming Up This Week

• Tuesday: Online Political Quizzes
• Wednesday: FOX News Opinion Poll: Hillary is Moving Up
• Thursday: Two Videos to Honor Our Troops
• Friday: Does the U.S. President Have to Believe in God?
• Saturday: Update #1: Kirk and Kay Carver

Saturday Morning Funnies

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Dad." With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Dad:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. 

I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes, and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Dad, she's pregnant.

Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children and Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone.

We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime, we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She  deserves it. Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love your son,

John

PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer. I love you. Call me when it's safe to come home.

[HT to Mike, Sandy and Cathy.]